J. V. Lankford and Tom Duncan, both Angelina County sawmillers, had an early interest in a sawmill just north of Davisville about 1907 and 1908. That year, in return for supplying 100,000 feet of lumber to Davisville Lumber Company of W. G. Harrington, Harrington would provide them financial support. The sawmill, engines, boilers were located on Ed Perkins land and their timber was situated on the Giles Perkins tract.
D. J. Campbell must have bought out J. V. Lankford shortly thereafter. Tom Duncan and D. J. Campbell, according to Ted Maberry, was the first Redland sawmill. Animal teams pulled log wagons to a skidway, the logs were dumped, and the sawlogs were taken by wooden tram into the sawing area. The tram ran to Cochran Switch where the plant's milled product could be put on the cars of the Houston East & West Texas.
Duncan & Campbell created a sawmill town, building a boarding house and about eight tenant houses.
Tom Duncan built another mill three or four miles west of Cochran Switch.